Chapter 1

They were at the deepest part of the tour, one hundred and eighty feet below ground and about three quarters of a mile from the entrance. J.T. stopped them and had everyone sit down on a ledge like he always did. Just as they sat, the power flickered for a second, this was not a normal part of a tour. Why did the emergency generator just kick in, JT wondered? He stood before them and explained how deep they were, that the cave was naturally seventy degrees and had a constant 99% humidity. That it was a living cave, there was only one stalagmite in the cave that they could touch, the oils on their hands would prohibit further growth. He pointed at one that had turned a dark brown. He explained that they could touch it if they wanted. No one did, for which he was thankful, they got it. He then said that even on the darkest of nights there was light, inside their houses light might come from a cable box or a clock, but it was never totally dark. This is total darkness! And turned off the lights. The gasps from the women and girls were expected. They literally couldn’t see their hand in front of their faces. After a minute he turned the lights back on and they started back up. At the halfway point, he was surprised to not see the last tour coming down. It was the first time in two years that the other tour wasn’t there. Still expecting it as they continued up and not seeing it, he began to get worried. They arrived at the door that kept the moisture in the cave and the heat of the Texas sun out without seeing the last tour.

He opened the door and found several piles of clothing on the flagstone walkway. As he picked up the clothing from the first pile, a white powder blew away in the wind. And a ring fell to the flagstone with a tinkling sound. He picked it up, and wordlessly he fell to the floor on his knees. Tears began to fall as he had recognized the ring, it belonged to the lady who was his boss. She never took the ring from her finger, not since her husband had died. And the other piles, large and small, a watch here another ring visible on the pile, all just as if they had dropped from a body as it disintegrated, the white powder. This was the last tour! He told his charges what he suspected. The two families in his tour looked shocked but they didn’t have any better explanation.

They split up, one family, the Bishop’s went to find their mother, Janice, who didn’t like caves and had stayed on the surface in the gift shop cafe. It was strange not to find other people, just piles of clothes with jewelry, and white powder. Looking around in the gift shop they found Janice’s purse on a seat in a booth, her shoes on the floor, her skirt and blouse, her wedding ring and watch on the table next to the book she had been reading. The family was devastated, the girls cried and cried and I cried along with them, Janice had been a great wife and mother.

JT went in search of the management of the caves in the office, all he found of his workmates were piles of their clothing, shoes and jewelry. The Whitaker’s, Fred and Cathy and their three girls, left to check the parking lot and make phone calls and check on the zoo next door.

Charlie Bishop thought, what or who killed all of these people and is it worldwide or just here? He remembered a movie about two girls who survived a meteor that passed by the earth and only people encased in metal containers survived. But this wasn’t caused by a meteor. A close flyby of a meteor would have been on the news, sensationalized so their ratings would go up. No, it wasn’t a meteor! Some new military weapons, the Russians? But Putin had been quiet lately. No one had the technology to do this, no humans on earth could have done this! What would be the reason for a weapon like this? The only reason to have a weapon like this would be to depopulate a planet so a new dominant species could move in. As Sherlock Holmes said “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”

Could it have been aliens? We have been broadcasting our existence for around one hundred and twenty nine years, since Marconi or Tesla invented wireless communications in 1894 or 95. Those transmissions travel at near the speed of light, literally thousands of planets have been found within the habitable zone, the “Goldilocks Zone” where liquid water exists, within a one hundred twenty light year radius from earth. The habitable zone where life, sentient life, could exist. Wormholes or Einstein-Rosen Bridges were not just Science Fiction devices, they were thought to actually exist. If so, an alien civilization has had plenty of time to get here. The human race keeps killing themselves off. Evidence points to civilizations going back over twelve thousand years and may go back farther than that. Earth has been around for four billion years. What if a planet was older than that, or a civilization didn’t keep killing each other and developed a sustainable civilization far older than ours, far more advanced than ours. What other options are there?

Charlie was a pretty smart guy, he had been a Navy Seal, he had been deployed in Afghanistan, and had been one of two of his teammates to survive an attack that had lasted eighteen hours. After coming back to the States and getting out of the Navy he went to Texas A&M university on the GI Bill, majored in Mechanical Engineering, with a minor in Electrical Engineering. He graduated at the top of his class with Summa Cum Laude honors. And he also found his wife Janice. They moved to Navasota, Texas, where he worked at a job he loved. Janice had a job as a Speech Language Pathologist at the High School.

They had three children, all girls, Jenny, sixteen, Jill, fifteen, and Justine, fourteen. They bought ten acres of wooded land, and built a house in the middle of it. They were naturalists, they rarely wore clothes unless the job they were doing outside required it, or it was too cold. They were comfortable in the lifestyle, the girls were used to it, it’s all they had ever known. When they had sleepovers everyone just stayed dressed, except if it was with some girls who were also in families that were also in the lifestyle. They also believed that one of the problems in the world was a repressed view of sex. They were completely open with the girls, making love in front of them, explaining what they were doing. Janice was bisexual and she showed the girls masturbation when they were very young. They also learned to pleasure each other. Like their mother they were beautiful and loved each other and their parents without the angst they saw in other kids.

The Whitaker’s had driven next door to the zoo. They had not found other people. The animals in the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch, adjacent to the cavern site but not affiliated with one another, had 500 types of animals. All of the animals were still alive, just no people. Some cars had wrecked when the drivers had disintegrated. Other than piles of clothing, there was no evidence that anyone else was alive.

JT drove into San Antonio in his twenty year old Chevy Silverado truck, he had seen no living people. The freeways were a mess. Cars had crashed into each other when they lost guidance, some places were impassable. He did see a Southwest Airlines jet flying toward the airport. He wanted to check it out but had to come back to meet with them instead. It was just as well, the aliens were waiting for their arrival. They killed everyone on board with their death Ray guns.

Charlie and the girls met up with JT and the Whitaker family to discuss everything they had found, or not found. No one had found any living people, animals yes, but no people. No one had been able to make contact with anyone on their contact list. Charlie shared that they had found his wife and her condition. They discussed what they should do next.

Charlie and the girls had to go home to take care of their animals. JT was going to Austin to pack, check on his roommates, then head home to Houston to see about his family. The Whittaker family lived in Bryan, they also had animals and relatives to check on. No one actually believed that they would find friends and family still alive, but they had to check. They exchanged phone numbers, though nobody knew how long cell phones and electricity would stay on. Just in case they decided to meet at the Buc-ee’s in Waller on Saturday noon, in three days. Charlie told them that they needed to get themselves armed as quickly as possible. There was no telling what had caused people to be turned into dust, but they were definitely not our friends and they should defend themselves. Everyone agreed to stop at the first place that sold weapons and arm themselves. They hoped they wouldn’t have to need them.

After running by a U-Haul rental yard hitching up the largest trailer, a six by twelve foot cargo covered one. Charlie and the girls stopped at the first gun store they came to, it didn’t take very long, it’s Texas after all. The door was unlocked, the disintegration had happened at 3:30 on a Wednesday afternoon, all the stores were open. They searched the five piles of clothes for the keys, finding them, they unlocked the gun racks and the ammo cases. They took everything: AR-15s, AR-10s, AK47s, Shotguns, hunting rifles, pistols and revolvers. They took all of the ammunition. They checked the store room and found a brand new Barrett 50 caliber Sniper rifle along with a top of the line scope, a suppressor and flash arrestor. All in a rigid case. Ammo for it included extra five shot magazines, armor piercing, and anti personnel rounds. They took everything, communications gear, flak jackets, bullet proof vests, knives, some top of the line compound bows, crossbows, arrows for both, hunting tips and target tips. They loaded them in the large tandem axle trailer. Both men chose weapons to keep with them. Charlie kept the Barrett out along with an AR-10, a 45 caliber 1911 Colt and a 12” Bowie knife.

They kept their eyes out for aliens and places that sold weapons, Pawn Shops, Sporting Goods stores, and Gun Shops. They stopped at most of them, gathering more weapons and ammunition, tents, sleeping bags, cooking utensils and supplies, water filtration devices, thermarest pads, and freeze dried food. They filled the trailer and as much of the truck as they could.